Lakeland U15AA Panthers win historic Provincial gold
Lakeland U15AA Panthers with the Provincial banner.
What a season for the Lakeland U15AA Panthers.
After winning the NAHL league with a pair of wins of Southside Athletic Club, they avenged their previous losses to the Calgary Royals White with a tightly contested 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s our most complete 60 minutes we’ve played. The heart and commitment to our game was unreal. The feeling for these kids is incredible…they worked their tails off. It’s unreal,” said coach Chad Mercier after the game.
“It was everybody. When we’re playing, it’s hard to pick one or two guys because of the team effort and the commitment to the team that everybody has. When we compete and play at our level, we’re hard to beat. Today we were hard at beat.”
After losing to the Royals at the Alberta Winter Games for the gold medal, and earlier in the tournament in the round-robin, the Panthers exercised the demons to do something last done by the 2017-18 Lakeland Panthers — hoist the Provincial banner.
Lakeland cruised to a 8-3 win over SSAC Innovation Physio, and collected a 5-4 win over CAC Think Green Alberta, and a 2-2 tie against the Okotoks Oilers to punch their ticket to the gold medal game.
The Panthers never trailed.
They got the quick jump thanks to goals from Cruz deMoissac and Deklyn Robinson to come out of the first period ahead 2-0.
Calgary got a 2nd period tally from Tayton Belecki but that would be as close as they would get. A wild scramble near the Panthers goal was snuffed out by Will Lafrance, who made 32 saves to ensure the gold.
Roster:
Panthers Defencemen Caleb Oxford
Panthers forward Cruz deMoissac
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